Italian police allegedly used dirty gloves when they handled evidence which
was used to convict Amanda Knox of the murder of her British flat-mate,
Meredith Kercher, a court in Italy heard today.

It was one of a series of blunders made by officers who searched the bedroom in which Miss Kercher was found dead, with her throat cut, in the cottage she shared with Knox in Nov 2007.

The potentially crucial mistakes, including not wearing protective caps and masks and allowing people to tramp in and out of the crime scene without following proper procedures, meant DNA evidence used to convict Knox was unreliable, two independent experts told the appeals court in Perugia.

Italian Professors Stefano Conti and Carla Vecchiotti, from La Sapienza University in Rome, were presenting findings from a 145-page report they wrote after reviewing the DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, an IT graduate who she started going out with 10 days before the murder.

Footage of the original crime scene investigation was projected onto a large screen in the vaulted, frescoed courtroom in a medieval palazzo in Perugia's historic centre.

The footage showed that one officer was wearing a plastic glove smudged with dirt when he collected a vital piece of evidence – a strap cut from Miss Kercher's bra by her killer or killers.

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Prosecutors maintained during the year-long trial in 2009 that the bra strap bore DNA material from Sollecito and so linked him to the murder.

But the court was told that the strap was not found by police until 46 days after the murder, by which time it had probably been kicked across the floor, and was therefore contaminated evidence.

The experts also raised doubts over a second crucial piece of evidence – the presumed murder weapon, a large, black-handled kitchen knife found in Sollecito's apartment.

Prosecutors insisted that Knox's DNA was on the handle of the knife and Miss Kercher's on the blade.

But the two forensics specialists said they found no trace of Miss Kercher's blood on the blade and that the presence of other DNA material on the blade was questionable because the samples that were tested were so small.

"The collection and sampling of evidence did not conform to international standards," said Prof Vecchiotti, citing protocols from the US Department of Justice.

Knox, wearing a white linen shirt, listened intently to the evidence of the experts and appeared relaxed, who are expected to be cross-examined at the next hearing in the case, on Saturday.

Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 26, were convicted in Dec 2009 of the sexual assault and murder of Miss Kercher, 21, of Coulsdon, Surrey, who was on a one-year exchange course from Leeds University when she was killed.

Both maintain their innocence and are appealing against the convictions, with a decision expected to be handed down by the court in late September.

Knox's family are increasingly confident that she could be acquitted and allowed to return home to Seattle.

"It's definitely looking better – finally we're hearing the truth - although I'm not celebrating until she walks out of jail," Edda Mellas, who was in court, told The Daily Telegraph. "She's hanging in there, but she's still locked up, it's horrible."

Chris Mellas, her stepfather, said: "We went through all this evidence in the pre-trial hearings, then again during the trial, and now we're hearing it again. But finally someone is listening."

Madison Paxton, 24, one of Knox's closest friends, who has relocated to Perugia and found a job in order to offer solidarity, said: "I'm sad that it's taken three and a half years for all this to come out but I'm very grateful to the appeals court for listening."

But a lawyer representing the Kercher family, who were not in court, said that they were concerned at the way in which the appeal was developing.

"They're very worried and they just hope the court will reach its verdict in a sober and reflective manner in order to arrive at a just outcome," said Francesco Maresca.